


Carmilla Continued

by CilverFur



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:55:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24657937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CilverFur/pseuds/CilverFur
Summary: Five years after the epic conclusion to the series and still spinning from their run in with ghosts, Carmilla and Laura are called back to Silas to deal with the dangerous offspring of the anglerfish god. But it soon becomes clear that darker forces are rising, forces that may threaten all of human kind. Will they survive the battles to come and forge a new world from chaos?
Relationships: Laura Hollis/Carmilla Karnstein
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	1. Welcome Back to Silas

**Hello to anybody who’s out there! My name is Laura Hollis. I don’t know if anyone can hear this, or if there’s even anyone left out there to listen, but with the armies of demons rising from the ground and the end of the world looking pretty nigh, I’ve decided to go full on I Am Legend and try my hand at radio broadcasting. Because chances are, my friends and I aren’t going to make it past the next seventy two hours, and the world needs to know what went down here. So strap in non-existent listeners, because I’m about to tell you the best adventure story since they turned Fantastic Beasts into a movie.**

**So, some of you might already know me as the girl who saved her university from an evil vampiric cult run by an ancient Sumerian goddess who wanted to open up the literal gates of hell. But for those of you that don’t, yeah that happened. And yeah, it was as terrifying and awesome as it sounds. But that was five years ago, and besides a brief stint into the ghosts of my 300-year-old vampire girlfriend’s murderous past, it’s been pretty quiet. So why, you ask, am I suddenly so close to life-threatening danger and end-of-the-world excitement?**

**Well, it all began when the physical manifestation of an underworld goddess, AKA my girlfriend’s half-resurrected undead sister Mattie, came to warn us that the giant, person-eating anglerfish god that nearly destroyed the entire Silas campus had laid hundreds of eggs before it had died. So, like any experienced supernatural investigators would, we called up the Scooby Gang, told them to meet us at the school, and hopped on a plane to Styria…**

I stared out of the car windows as we drove, watching as the dense clusters of shadowy leaves and branches melted in and out of the night’s unbroken darkness. We were driving down one of those roads you see in horror movies - dark, foggy, and twisting through the thickest patch of forest this side of the Swiss Alps. Every time I looked out the front window I half-expected to see a guy with a hockey mask and a chainsaw standing in the middle of the road, waving us down. And the fact that Carmilla preferred to drive with the headlights off and took the speed limit as little more than a suggestion didn’t really help. I squinted harder at the blackness, trying to make out a street sign or mile marker that would give me some idea of how far we had left to go. But all I could see clearly was my own reflection squinting intrusively back at me, hair messily tied into a bun, makeup smudged across my face, dark circles under my eyes. I looked tired.

Carm must have noticed the same, because she glanced over at me from behind the wheel and said, “You know creampuff, the trees aren’t going to disappear if you close your eyes for a few minutes.” 

“But if I did that, who would keep you company?” I said, turning away from the window. I knew I was dodging her point, but I was too excited to close my eyes. My stomach felt like it was doing somersaults with every bend in the road, wondering if I was going to see the familiar outline of Silas shrouded in black each time we rounded a turn.

“Laura, we’ve been traveling for almost a full day, you look exhausted.” She said, her voice losing its sarcastic edge. I should’ve known she wasn’t going to let it drop that easily.

“I’m fine,” I said, stifling a horribly-timed yawn. “I slept on the plane.”

“No you didn’t, you were too busy lecturing the women in front of us about the dangers of using non-polarized sunglasses when driving a sub-standard vehicle.” 

I was about to tell her that I only brought up that conversation after I had overheard them discussing some very questionable driving techniques when – BLAST! An explosion of sound erupted in the car - an immense drone of high, buzzing static which melted into an ear-shattering screech. Like the wailing of pure anguish, it was piercing and shrill, reaching octaves that I could only register by the shiver in my spin and the ache in my bones. And it was so loud that all the air in the car seemed to vibrate with its power. My body shook so violently that my teeth clattered together and I could no longer force air down into my lunges. I could barely think through the din and pain. I may have been screaming, I think I clutched at my ears with my hands, but it made no difference. My head felt like it was splitting open, tears streamed down my face, something warm and wet was leaking between my fingers. Somewhere to my side, Carmilla was also yelling. She jerked her hands off the wheel and held her head, her face contorting in pain. With no one controlling it, the car spun towards one side of the road, skidding violently towards the solid trees. Still yelling, Carm gripped the wheel hard and slammed her foot on the break. Through the confusion, I registered the smell of burning rubber. And as the squeal of the breaks mixed with our screams, I could just make out words formed from the torrent into garbled, choked speech.

“HE HAS COME TO TAKE BACK WHAT WAS STOLEN. BEWARE O MORTAL, FOR HE OF CREATION WILL DESTROY ALL THAT IS.”

At once, the radio went back to silence. All I could hear was a deafening ringing in my ears, and the ghosts of my scream still echoing in my throat as Carm pulled the car to a stop less than a foot away from the start of the forest. We sat for a second, breathing heavily, half-deaf, with blood still trickling from our ears.

“What the hell was that?” I asked. My strained voice feeble. 

Carm was staring at the blood on her fingertips, her face a mixture of shock, pain, and fear. Shaking her head slowly, she whispered into the charged air, “I have no idea.”

\---

When we finally got to Silas about two hours later, we were still reeling from nearly being blasted to death by the radio. Carm hadn’t heard the words underneath the noise that I had, so I told her what it had said. She figured it was a warning from some powerful, magical being who didn’t want us to be at Silas. Maybe a remnant of the anglerfish god. So now the bad guys are controlling the radio waves and can use them to basically blow our brains up whenever they want to. Great.

We could see that before we entered the grounds that the school was a mess. Where there used to be a front gate there was now a tangle of twisted metal and stone. Craggy fissures wide enough to swallow the car ran for hundreds of feet along the north quad, and the cafeteria’s giant tower now sat in two huge pieces on the ground. As we drove across campus, I could see pockets of movement all around. Two teams of warring lizard people were fighting with each other by the Zeta house, a group of students were blowing neon smoke rings on the steps of the faculty building, and three girls in nightdresses were chasing around a giant, headless chicken that was frantically running in circles, slamming itself into buildings, trees, and the occasional bewildered co-ed. 

“Looks like I’m not the only one who creates trouble at Silas.” I said, watching as the kids by the faculty building starting trapping the giant chicken in a series of rainbow smoke rings.

“Oh, I’m sure that if you were involved, it would be much worse.” Carm said back as she steered around a pit of fire in the road.

We pulled up to the library, which seemed to have escaped the worst of the campus destruction. It looked so familiar, even after all these years. I got out of the car and reached out a hand to touch the cool brick. “I know this place is, like, the root of all evil and we’ve almost died a million times because of it,” I said. “But it’s kind of nice being back, you know? It feels like home.”

Carm cocked an eyebrow at me and crossed her arms. “I think I prefer our apartment in the city. It doesn’t have rats, or a water sewage problem, or, oh yeah, the evil offspring of a demonic anglerfish that tried to eat us.”

“Right, point taken,” I said, taking my hand off the building. “Well, we’re not going to get any closer to stopping said evil offspring out here, let’s go say hi to everybody.”

Just at that moment the door to the library burst open and out came Danny, Laf, and Mel. Danny wore the usual black on black combination that she had favored ever since turning team vampire, but both Mel and Laf were wearing strange, bright yellow visors around their heads which I could only assume were Laf’s inventions. All three of them had stakes belted around their waists and Laf carried a large, metallic contraption that looked suspiciously like a Star Trek blaster. They were arguing.

“Well, if you want to go out and look for it, fine by me. But I am not going to be the one to scrape you off the ground when they’re done with you.” Danny growled as she stormed into the open air.

“That’s what the body shields are for, obviously. All I need from you is to carry the thing back up once we get it.” Laf said as they adjusted a small, wire-filled dial on their wrist. The obnoxious yellow visor on their head flashed in response.

“Forget it brainiac, I’m not risking my life for some magical book.” Danny turned away from the door and looked straight at Carmilla and me. Immediately, the hard set of her mouth softened into a smile. She rushed forward and wrapped me in a hug that felt like I was getting crushed by a trash compactor. Even after five years of being a vampire, Danny hadn’t quite regained the gentle touch. 

“Laura! It’s so good to see you!” She said, lifting me so that my toes barely touched the ground and causing my lower spine to erupt in a quiet symphony of popping sounds.

“Hey Danny. Not that I don’t appreciate the love, but you’re sort of crushing my ribs.” I squeaked. She dropped me and took a chagrined step back. But before she could apologize, I laughed and I threw my arms back around her. “It’s good to see you too.”

“Hey, Frosh.” Laf said, “What’s it been? A whole two weeks?” They grinned and thumped me lightly on the shoulder.

“Nice of you two to finally show up,” said Mel, crossing her arms and frowning, as was her usual method of greeting. 

“It’s good to be back,” I beamed. It was true. Being at Silas with everyone brought back memories of freshman year. Fighting to save the world against overwhelming odds while tackling the difficulties of being in love for the first time, with a vampire no less. It had all been very romantic, and I’d forgotten how much I missed it. “So, what’s the situation?” I continued. “You guys look like you’re in full Buffy mode, and the school’s a mess. Well, even more of a mess than it usually is. What’d we miss? Is it the anglerfish babies? Are they destroying the campus? Or is it something else? Because we’ve already had some weird experiences with the extranormal before getting to campus.” 

“Oh, you mean the demonic voice from hell? Yeah, we heard that too.” Laf said.

“Yeah, my ears are still ringing. Who knew the sound of the apocalypse would be so painful.” Mel said, rubbing her ears.

“So, that’s unusual?” I asked, “It isn’t something that’s been happening on campus?”

“Not that we know of,” Danny said, “But I only got here two days ago and everyone else came after me.”

“So, we can’t say for sure if it was unusual unless we question some Silas students, got it. That still doesn’t answer why you three look like you’re running off to battle and Laf has a gun that I can only assume you stole from the USS Enterprise.”

“Lois Lane makes a good point,” Mel said, “we should probably get back to it, it’s going to be morning soon.”

“Yeah, sorry Laura but we need to go.” Danny said. I started to protest, but she cut me off. “Perry and Kirsch are in the library, they’ll explain everything.” And just like that the three of them ran off, leaving Carm and me standing on the steps of the library, even more confused than we had been before.

“Yeah, good to see you all too.” Carm said as she watched their silhouettes get smaller against the lighting sky. She looked over at me. “What are you smiling for?”

I let out a short, maniacal laugh and rubbed my hands together. “Because the game is afoot, my dear Dr. Watson, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

…

**Alright, I know the Sherlock Holmes analogy may have been a little premature, especially with it looking like cut and dry case of monstrous activity, but things were about to get pretty crazy. Carm and I met up with Kirsch and Perry in the library. He was discovering the seemingly endless amount of food that the vending machines supplied while she was taking a page out of my old book and vigorously scrubbing every inch of the library’s hundreds of bookshelves. They both seemed pretty siked to see us and they explained everything that had been going on over the past few days...**

“Well Danny got here first a couple of days ago, I think.” Perry was saying. “Lafontaine and I were coming from a meeting with some potential corporate sponsors in Japan so it took some serious fanagling to get a flight here on such short notice. I’m still worried we offended the buyers by leaving so suddenly. I should send them an email to apologize again. Anyway, after several hours of extremely unsanitary traveling accommodations we got here yesterday morning. Kirsch and Mel came together a few hours after that. Since then it’s mostly been about damage control and trying to figure about what the heck has been going on here. And let me tell you, it has not been pretty. When we arrived, the alchemy club had just let loose some sort of pathogen that turned all the wildlife into giant beasts. Danny spent the better part of an afternoon subduing a twenty-foot tall squirrel that had gotten itself stuck in one of the girls’ bathrooms.”

“Yeah, I think we saw one of their test subjects as we came in.” Carm said.

“Though it’s nice to know that they’ve kept their membership up even after everything that’s happened.” I added. We were sitting on the floor of the library in a little space that we’d cleared out. Around us sat piles of books - stacks of rough-looking volumes that occupied all of the chairs, benches, and tables that had been scattered across the room as well as most of the floor. When we had walked in, Perry had been meticulously rearranging a particularly old pile of books from alphabetical order to the Dewey decimal system. Looking around the room showed that each stack had been similarly organized and sorted and each book had apparently been individually dusted. Perry had been busy. Kirsch on the other hand took a more laze fair approach to the mess. He was currently asleep on top of a pile of encyclopedias, surrounded by heaps of junk food wrappers, most of which I recognized as having come from the vending machines. According to Perry, he had chanced across the machines earlier that morning and had promptly ate himself into a coma.

“Well, we have worse problems than the alchemy club’s membership to worry about.” Perry said. “Something is seriously wrong here. Earthquakes every few hours, fire pits opening up with no warning, a lightning storm passed through and cut out all the power to the main campus, and I’ve heard some students are showing symptoms of the plague. Something or someone is causing all of this. I guess the only good news is that the anglerfish babies haven’t been able to cause any real harm yet. They’re all still trapped in the pit.”

“Like mother like monstrous fish baby, I guess.” Said Carm.

“So what was up with Danny, Mel, and Laf rushing out of here looking like the Ghostbusters?” I asked, “Did you guys find a lead in one of these books?”

“Sadly, no. Though not for lack of trying. We must’ve combed through every text in the mythology portion of the library and nothing. It’s like all the information about ancient Sumeria just disappeared. So, the three of them went out to find the one book we’re almost sure will have something.”

“What? You mean the book the Dean used as a talisman five years ago to open the gates of hell? The one that Carm had to travel through a room full of fire and knives to get? The one that’s still probably in a pit now swarming with the offspring of a demonic killer god, if it’s even still in one piece after all this time?”

“That’s the one. We’ve started calling it the Codex, you know, to minimize confusion.”

“Those idiots are going to get themselves killed going down there.” Carm said, standing up.

“I agree,” I said. “We have to go after them. There must be another way that doesn’t involve facing a horde of baby demons in an enclosed space.” I lifted myself off the ground, careful not to knock over any of the books. 

“Well, if you have a better idea, feel free to share it, Laura,” Perry said. “But Lafontaine’s been working on an advanced energy shield that they’re pretty sure will protect them and Mel. Plus Danny went with them. And honestly, we have no other leads to follow. The Codex is our only chance at figuring out what’s going on here.”

“We should try to help them even so,” Carm said as she moved through the piles of books across the room. “Danny Fresh Fangs won’t be able to protect both of them if Laf’s tech falls through. Laura?”

“I’m coming,” I said, clambering over a stack of leather grimoires. As I turned to leave, I saw Perry nervously begin to rearrange a pile of atlases by cover size.


	2. Making New Enemies

Carm was ahead of me as I exited the library so I jogged a few steps and caught her hand in mine. We walked quickly together across the lawn, in the direction of where we remembered the pit to be. It also happened to be the direction where most of the smoke and noise was coming from on campus. The sun was starting to crest over the treetops in the east, filling the sky with a dull red haze that reminded me of some post-apocalyptic movie that Carm had made me watch a few weeks ago.

Carm gave my hand a small squeeze as we walked. “So, do you still feel like we’re on another grand adventure? Or is the Silas homecoming not everything you wanted it to be?”

“I’m trying to be optimistic,” I said. “There’s still plenty of time for this to turn less Deathly Hallows and more Prisoner of Azkaban.”

“And will that be before or after we get eaten by demonic anglerfish?”

“You know, I think your pessimism is souring what could potentially be a very wonderful opportunity.”

“And what opportunity would that be?”

“An opportunity for me to see Carmilla Karnstein, grumpy gumshoe detective.” I dropped my voice into my best ‘70s cop impression. “Best detective on the force they said. Never let a case go unsolved.” I nudged her on the shoulder and laughed. She smiled for the first time since arriving in Styria. 

She looked as though she was going to respond when her expression shifted suddenly. Her eyes flighted to something over my shoulder and her top lip pulled back to show her teeth. A low, catlike growl came from her throat. I turned my head to see what was wrong, but she pulled me around by the hand and took a step in front of me, putting herself between me and whatever she had seen.

“Carm, what the hell-” I started as I looked up. There, about thirty feet away, stood a man. He was tall and wore an expensive, fitted suit that shimmered in the early sun’s rays. His face was hard to describe. He seemed vaguely handsome, but the details of his features were fuzzy. One minute he seemed to look like a young man: short dark hair, a scattering of stubble shadowing his chin, and the next I could swear he had a full beard and deep wrinkles surrounding his eyes. His complexion seemed to shift from looking somewhat Middle Eastern, to being as pale as Carm, and his age was impossible to place. He might have been twenty five or he might have been sixty. It hurt my head just to look at him for more than a few seconds. The only parts of his appearance that stayed clear in his shifting face were his eyes, which were so dark they looked black, and large scar in the shape of a fish on the side of his neck.

“Good morning, ladies” He said, cordially. His tone was formal, like a business professional greeting a colleague, but something felt off in the way he stood. His hands were in his pockets, his feet were shoulder-width apart, and he held his chin high and proud. He looked confident, like nothing could touch him, even as he looked into the eyes of an obviously guarded vampire.

Carmilla just glared at him and continued to growl lowly in her throat. So, I leaned out from behind her and addressed the man. “Good morning to you too, mysterious, well-dressed stranger. Did you get lost on your way to the meeting of the supernatural businessmen?”

He glanced at me and the weight of his gaze fell heavy on my shoulders. It made me feel small. I’d felt that way before, five years ago. It was the same force that the Dean had had behind her eyes. The same intimidating aura. Crap.

“Laura Hollis,” He said. “The human with a knack for getting mixed up in affairs supernatural. Like a prolific gnat buzzing around the heads of giants.”

“So you’ve heard of me. That’s sweet. But I usually like to think of myself as less buggish and more modern day Nancy Drew.”  
“Oh, I don’t mean to offend Ms. Hollis, only to state the truth.”

“Yeah, because that’s not offensive at all,” I muttered.

“In fact, you should be quite proud of yourself,” The man continued. “You’re a prime counterexample to the presumed uselessness of your species. You changed the course of history when you restored Inanna to her former glory. And in doing so, sparked the entire purpose for my presence here now.”

“Which is what, exactly?” Carm growled.

“Why you, of course.” He smiled at Carmilla and took a step towards us, taking his hands out of his pockets and smoothing the front of his jacket. Carm tensed. “Now Ms. Karnstein, no need to glare,” He said. “I have no intention of hurting you or Ms. Hollis. It would be a true shame to damage one so beautiful as yourself.” He smiled again.

Carmilla grimaced at the compliment. I seriously considered giving him a good punch to the nose.

“Enough with the mysterious stranger act, who are you and what do you want,” I said angrily, trying to step out farther from behind Carm. She just shifted slightly and stayed in front of me. 

“My name is Isimud and I am but a mere messenger.”

“Isimud?” I said. The name sounded familiar for some reason. Like I’d seen it before.

“That name was in the book, the Codex,” Carm said. “In a list of Sumerian gods.”

The man smiled and feigned a bow. “I see you’ve heard of me as well then, good. I’ve come to relay a message from my master to yours, Ms. Karnstein.”

“I don’t have a master.”

“Mother, then, I’m not picky about terms. Just tell her that her time is up. If she doesn’t return what she took, he’ll make the anglerfish look like child’s play.”

Carmilla scoffed. “That’s some threat coming from someone who sends a lackey instead of showing up himself.”

“You’d do well not to underestimate my master. Or you’ll not live to regret it.”

At that point, I had just about had enough of his condescension and vague threats. Side stepping Carm’s outstretched arm, I moved forward and said, “We’ve faced a whole lot worse than some wannabe god and his overdressed messenger boy!”

He turned and leveled the full power of his gaze on me and I instantly regretted my words. The look made my stomach twist and my heart drop to my knees. “You insolent child!” He spat. “You have no idea who you’re talking about. My master will immolate this planet. He’ll rise from the sea and raise the ground and sky. The earth will crack and from its depths will spew monsters the likes of which have never been seen before. You think you have seen worse? You think you have felt terror, heard strife, seen death? It was he who shaped this world and he who will be its undoing. He’d rather destroy creation itself than let her have it!”

As he spoke, his words filled my head. I saw the ground splitting open, giving way to pits of flames and smoke. I saw people screaming and crying as waves as tall as buildings crushed cities and swept away homes. I saw death; I felt it. My heart dropped and I could feel my hands start to shake and sweat. Fear crept down my throat and sank in my stomach so that I felt like I might puke. I had never felt words so strongly before. It wasn’t a promise he had given, it was a prophecy. I realized that my head was pounding and the heartbeat in my ears was nearly deafening. I swallowed hard against the lump in the back of my throat and tried to blink away the black spots that were swimming in the corner of my eyes. The earth shook beneath my feet, I could almost feel it starting to break open. 

Everything was spinning out of control, I felt like I was dying. I couldn’t breath, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t think. In my panic I felt a hand grab mine. I looked up and met Carmilla’s eyes and suddenly, it broke. Everything snapped back into focus. My head stopped hurting, the world stopped shaking, my heart and breathing went back to normal and strength returned to legs. Carmilla gave a slight, jerky nod to confirm that I was okay and I returned it. She turned back to Isimud, keeping my hand in hers as she did.

He smiled. “I’ll never understand creatures like you, Ms. Karnstein. All of your power, your strength, your glory, and you choose a human as your companion. It’s unnatural.”

“It’s better than living out my eternity as a dog, never straying from what my master bids of me.”

Isimud frowned at her and slid his hands back into his pockets. “Your mother has three days to return what she stole. After that, all life on this earth is forfeit. Make sure to tell her that.” He looked as though he might turn to leave but seemed to think better of it. He nodded towards Carm, “If this does turn ugly, do yourself a favor and get far away from here. I can’t stand lost potential.” And with a flash of his white, pointed teeth, he took a step forward and disappeared into thin air.  
…  
Carm and I stood in silence for a few minutes processing what had just happened. Finally, she broke the silence.

“Are you okay?”

I looked up at her. I could still feel the aftershock of Isimud’s words pulsing through me. “What in the frilly hell was that?” My voice came out strained and quieter than I had meant.

“I’m not sure exactly, definitely some kind of magic. It was like he was sending out waves of fear.” 

“I felt like-” I was struggling to find the words, “I felt like I was dying. I think- I think I was dying. One second I was fine and the next I was fading away. I couldn’t even fight it.” Tears pushed at the back of my eyes and a lump had reformed in the back of my throat. “Carm, I-” My voice broke as I struggled to regain control over myself. Carmilla looked over at me.

“Woah, hey,” She said, putting her arms around me. “Hey, Laura it’s okay. You’re fine. I’m here, okay? I’m right here.” She hugged me tighter and I wrapped my still shaking arms around her neck, using her to steady myself. “You’re okay,” She whispered into my ear. “It wasn’t real. I’m here.” She turned her head and kissed me on the cheek, running one of her hands through my hair. I burrowed my face against her neck and for a few seconds just stood there, breathing deep, calming breaths. Carmilla always smelled like flowers that were just passed full bloom, and even though her skin was cool to the touch, her breath was warm against my ear. I felt safe standing there with her, tangled in her arms, the smell of her neck and softness of her hair surrounding me. Slowly, my heartbeat returned to normal, my breathing became less jagged, my mind became clearer. I touched my lips to her neck and moved back a bit, so that we could meet eye-to-eye but still have our arms around each other.

“I guess that must be what a dementor feels like,” I said. She smiled and used one of her thumbs to trace circles on my jaw. It felt nice, almost nice enough to make me smile back. “You really think he was a god?” 

Carmilla frowned and turned to look in the direction that the man had disappeared. Slowly, she nodded her head.  
“I think he has to be. What you just felt, I felt too, though to a lesser extent I’m pretty sure. And that voice in the car - we both heard that. We were both hurt by that. There aren’t many beings that can hurt a vampire. A god would be a pretty good explanation.” 

“I don’t know if I’d use the word ‘good’ given the circumstances.”

“Yeah, you’re right. How’s terrible and horrifying? Or maybe abhorrent? I think there are some choice phrases in French that could apply.”

In spite of the overwhelming doom we were facing, I smiled. “I think we’re gonna have to rain check our thesaurus search for the appalling and atrocious. We have some work to get started on.”

“And what work would that be? 

“What else?” I said with a sigh. “Research. Tons and tons of research.”

…

**Laura: So yeah, we’re facing a god. Again. But what else is new? And before you all start in with the ‘But, Laura, you’ve already done this, why are you so worried?’ just remember that the Dean was trapped in a human body as part of an eons old god mutiny against her and she was definitely not at full power. Isimud could attack us with his mind. I mean, how the hell are we supposed to fight psychic fear attacks? Plus, I haven’t even gotten to the worst part yet: who Isimud was working for. Let me tell you, this stuff gets Mt. Olympus levels of ridiculous. But I’m getting ahead of myself.**

**After deciding that the best course of action would be hitting the books with all the cramming skill of somebody who got her BA and PhD in less time than it takes some people to write their dissertations, Carm and I suddenly remembered the reason we were outside in the first place. We raced to the pit and arrived just in time to see a very stunned looking Danny, Laf, and Mel crawl back onto level ground. They looked rough and tumbled but no worse for wear, unless you count the perpetual looks of terror and disgust that didn't leave their faces for a good hour afterwards. They never did tell us the details of what went on down there. They only said that Laf’s tech worked, that they got the book, and that they would never be able to watch Finding Nemo again. Even Danny looked pretty freaked out, a rare occurrence for her since joining team vamp.**

**We all got back to the library in one piece - though there were a few close calls with a swamp monster that the Necromancy Club had risen from the lake - and there, Carm and I filled everyone else in on our little meeting with the messenger god. Needless to say, they were all about as thrilled as we had been. But with a name and a magic book, we finally had a few clues to direct our research…**

It had been nearly three hours since we had all returned to the library and most of that time had been spent scouring the Codex for any mention of Isimud and what his cryptic threat could have been referring to. We had all pretty much agreed that by Carmilla’s mother he had been referring to Inanna, but we still had no idea who Isismud’s master was and what Inanna had apparently stolen. Laf, Danny, Perry, Carm, and I had been taking turns flipping through the dense pages of the book looking for answers while Kirsch (who finally managed to wake up and greet us) and Mel sat in the back corner of the room stockpiling potential weapons. 

I had been awake for nearly thirty six hours and it was catching up to me. After my last, unfruitful turn at the Codex, I had slumped down next to Carm on the couch and nuzzled my head into the space right above her collarbone. I was warm and comfortable and despite the near constant anxiety that I had been feeling since the meeting with Isimud, I started to drift off. It felt like the world was falling away and I was rising up, away from all the troubles we were facing, into a beautiful, hazy dreamscape. Just as I was about to give in to the blissful numbness of sleep, somebody shook my shoulder.  
I jolted awake, momentarily disoriented. It took me a few seconds to focus on Danny’s face, just a few inches from my own. She was kneeling next to me, looking slightly apologetic.

“Sorry to wake you,” she nearly whispered, careful not to disturb the quiet atmosphere around us. “I was hoping we could talk.”

I blinked once more to try and wake myself up further and nodded at her. I got up gingerly, to avoid waking Carmilla, and followed her through a door into a small storage closet.

“Huh, I don’t even remember this room existing.” I muttered, looking around as Danny closed the door. “So what’s up?”

She turned to me, frowning. She looked like a cross between concerned and embarrassed. She wouldn’t quite look me in the eye, preferring to flick her gaze quickly from object to object around the cramped room.

“Danny, are you okay? What’s going on?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, still not meeting my gaze. Her hands were fidgeting. “Really, I am. It’s not even really about me, or it is I guess, but it’s also about Carmilla.”

“Carmilla? What are you talking about?”

“I need your help, Laura. Well, really I need her help, but I need you to help me convince her.”

“Convince her to do what? Hey, Danny would you just look at me?” I grabbed her moving hands and took a step closer to her to force her to meet my gaze. She sighed and frowned but seemed to relax a bit.

“I need you to ask Carmilla to train me.”

“Train you? Are you entering some ultimate fighter competition for vampires that I don’t know about?”

“No, not like that, I need her to teach me… things. Vampire things.”

“Vampire things? Oh, that clears it right up.”

“You know, like speed running and controlling my strength and not biting my date in the neck every time things are going well.”

“Wait, did you do that?” A quick mental image of Danny accidently vamping out on some poor girl at the movies flashed through my head and I had to stop myself from laughing. Danny herself seemed unamused.

“That’s not really important, Laura. The point is, I’ve kind of been doing this on my own for the last five years. The Dean died pretty fast after she, you know, made me or whatever, and it’s not like she did a whole lot of teaching while she was alive. I’ve made do with what I could figure out, but this stuff isn’t easy. I can still barely hug you without breaking your back and super speed isn’t nearly as intuitive as you’d think. I keep hitting trees and buildings when I try to go fast, not to mention the fact that I seem to be constantly hungry for blood and I have no idea how to manage it without going the complete self-denial route. Super hearing, super smelling, shape shifting, sonic screams? It’s a lot to handle on my own. Carm had centuries of training from her mother and Mattie, I could use her help here.” Danny finished her little speech with a deep breath out. She looked relieved to have gotten it off her chest.

I thought about this for a moment. It had never occured to me that Danny would be having a hard time acclimating to the vampire lifestyle, or even that being a vampire was something that needed to be taught. Carm and Mattie had both always seemed so sure of themselves, so confident in their own strengths and abilities that it was easy to forget that they hadn’t always had them. Even when Carmilla had been a human, she’d always carried herself with pride and purpose. There was never doubt in her actions, like she’d had centuries of experience in everything she did. And then when she was revamping… I wracked my brain to remember those few days before we had gone to Elle’s mansion. Carmilla had lost control once, unintentionally bit me in her sleep, there had been cause for fear, for mistrust, but even so, had I ever really been afraid? The answer came to me before the question had finished forming in my mind. No, of course not. Shocked and confused? Sure. But not afraid. Carmilla was too self-disciplined to ever really lose control. Too practiced to be a danger to anyone that she didn’t actually want to hurt. But Danny was new, even if five years didn’t feel like a short time to me, it was trivial to a being that could live forever. Carmilla’s nickname for her, Baby Fangs, seemed more fitting suddenly. Danny was like a child in the vampire world, of course she needed to be taught.

For a moment, I imagine what it must’ve been like for Carmilla three hundred and fifty years ago. She wouldn’t have been the same Carm that I knew and loved. She would have been young, scared, confused, and overwhelmed by everything that was happening to her. I could see how Inanna had convinced her to murder, how she had recruited her as a faithful servant for nearly one hundred and fifty years. In a time when nothing made sense, Inanna was the only person leading her forward.   
All of this flashed through my head in a jumble of thoughts and feelings. It took a few moments for me to process all of it before I could look back to Danny. She was staring at me, waiting for my response.

“I’m sorry, Danny, I never even thought of that.” Danny smiled, and nodded in a way of saying that she forgave me. “But,” I continued, “why don’t you just ask Carm directly? Why do you need me?”

Danny looked mildly uncomfortable. “Well, Carmilla and I have never really gotten along.”

“What? That’s not true! You’ve fought together to save the world a dozen times.”

“Try once,” she said. “Every other time it’s been more like fighting against each other.”

“What about when we were fighting Vordenberg?”

“And I joined his cult to rid the school of vampires and then got Carmilla’s sister killed? Something tells me that memory’s not going to go very far in persuading her to help me.”

“Okay, well what about when we were fighting the Dean?”

“The first time sure, but then I ended up becoming her vampire lacky and aiding her in her quest to destroy the entire world. I’m also pretty sure I punched Carmilla pretty hard in the face during one of our fights.”

“Huh.” I said. Danny and Carm did actually have a lot of reason to dislike each other now that I thought about it.

“So,” Danny said, “I was hoping that if you asked her, she’d be more willing to do it. Since, you know, she loves you or whatever.”

“You know, you might have a point.”

“So you’ll do it?”

I frowned, trying to think about how exactly I was going to broach this subject to Carmilla, but looking at Danny’s hopeful face drove any remaining hesitance from me. “Yeah, Danny, I’ll talk to her.”

She smiled and threw her arms around me, almost breaking my back for the second time that day. “Thank you, Laura! You’re the best!” I hugged her back and smiled. It had been a while since I’d seen Danny really happy and hopeful, it brought me back to freshman year. We’d been closer back then. Silently, I made a promise to be a better friend, to work harder to be in her life more, to know how she was feeling.

When she finally let me go we were both still smiling. Another thought struck me, and after a moment of hesitation, I decided to act on it.

“Hey Danny, I want to tell you something about-”

A yell from the other room cut me off. It sounded like Laf. Simultaneously, Danny and I reached for the door and ran back to join our friends.

“I got it! Isimud, the messenger god, it’s right here!” Laf shouted. The whole room jerked out of its sleepy atmosphere as attention focused on Laf. “It says, ‘Isimud, the messenger god, sworn servant of Enki. Often arriving to deliver threats and judgements for his master, Isimud was easily recognizable by his two faces.”

“Quirrell vibe much?” Perry said. 

“Or Janis, from Greek mythology,” Laf added. 

“Everyone plagiarizes,” said Mel. 

“That would explain all the funkyness going on with his face,” I said, thinking back. “Though it was less like two distinct appearances and more like a shifting   
hodgepodge of a bunch of different combinations.”

“Does it say anything else?” Carm was frowning and her tone was sharp.

Laf looked back down. “Not much. It looks like Isimud himself isn’t all that powerful, it’s his boss that really calls the shots. Though there is a pretty creepy image of him here with what looks like the world’s biggest kitchen knife.”

“And you’re sure Enki is the name of his master? You’re not messing up the translation?”

“I know how to read Ancient Sumerian, Carmilla. I’ve had a lot of practice, in case you don’t remember, researching ways to not get killed by your mother.”

“Carm,” I said, turning to her, “You know the name? Enki? I guess it’s too much to hope that he’s the god of rainbows and accepting apologies from people who’ve stolen from you?”

“Does that god, really exist?” Kirsch asked, perking up. “Because that would be so cool.”

“Something about the burning pits of fire out on the quad tells me we’re not so lucky,” Mel said. 

“I’m afraid the weapons nut is right,” Carm said. “If I’m remembering correctly, Enki wasn’t one to be messed with. He was-”

She didn’t get the chance to finish. Right at that moment there was a massive boom from right outside the building that shook the floor beneath our feet, causing several of the precarious piles of books to tumble down.

“What the hell was that?!” Mell shouted. Another boom shook the building, sending more books onto the floor and nearly knocking me off my feet. Next to me, Perry fell backwards into a stack of 18th century encyclopedias.

“It’s coming from outside!” Yelled Danny as she helped Perry to her feet. “It’s like something’s trying to break the door down.”

Another boom, more powerful than its predecessors, caused one of the walls to shake so violently that bits of brick and drywall came crashing to the floor.

“But isn’t the library protected by some magical spells or something?” Kirsch yelled from across the room. “Whatever it is, it can’t get in, right?”

“I guess we’re about to find out,” Carmilla responded. “Danny, Mel, grab something you can fight with. Laura-”

With a massive crash, one side of the library exploded. Chunks of cement and brick flew across the room, colliding with the furniture and splintering the bookshelves. I heard someone scream like they were in pain. It sounded like Laf but drywall dust filled the room like a fog, making it nearly impossible to see.

“Carmilla!” I yelled, stretching my arms out to feel for her. In a second she was there. She grabbed my outstretched figures and put her other hand to my face.

“Laura, are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” I coughed through the dust. I put my hand on top of hers in a gesture of reassurance. “Though I think Laf might’ve gotten hit by something. What about you?”

Before she could answer, an ear-splitting roar filled the room. It was so powerful that the air around me shook and the vibrations from the floor threatened to turn my legs into jello. I yelled and covered my ears as a reflex but Carm whipped around towards the opening that had just been blown in the side of the building. I followed her gaze and felt my heart drop to my knees. There, filling the fifteen foot hole in the library wall, stood a monster.


	3. A New Face

**Laura: Now, when I say monster, some of you listeners might be inclined to go down the Disney route and imagine some non-human, kid-friendly beast that provides an excellent metaphor for love and acceptance regardless of looks (and also might glorify Stockholm Syndrome, but let’s not get into that right now). Anyway, let me assure you that this monster was less PG romance, and more grotesque lab experiment gone wrong.**

**First of all, the thing was massive. Easily over fifteen feet tall, and nearly as wide. It was humanoid in the sense that it had two legs, but that’s where the comparison stops. Because instead of a head or torso, it had a massive composite of raw, mutilated flesh, stretched, slimy, fish-like skin, and sections of jagged, black scales that ran up and down its body. Out of the back of this mass of meat came a long, scaly tail, which flicked quickly through the air behind the beast, and interspersed over this garble mess of a body sat hundreds of tiny black eyes, all of which blinked and flicked around the room so often that it looked like the entire monster was constantly shifting and swirling around. And worst of all, a giant slit ran vertically down its body, from the top of its mutilated head to right above the split of its legs. And as I watched, the skin around that slit peeled back to revel rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth. It opened its gigantic maw as it stood towering in the doorway, and from the fleshy black depths of its body let out a blood-curdling roar…**

“Holy fish monster, that reeks!” I yelled as I switched from clutching my ears, to holding my nose and mouth. “Ugh, if that thing opens its mouth again, I think I’m gonna puke.”

“Anybody have any plans on how to stop this thing?!” Danny yelled from across the room, also looking a bit green.

“Yeah!” Mel yelled, holding a huge bow in one hand and reaching into the quiver at her side with the other. “We shoot it with everything we’ve got!” Without missing a beat, she began firing volley after volley of arrows into the beast’s side. It roared in pain and turned towards her. With a giant step forward, it smashed the rest of the way through the destroyed library wall and towered over us, its half-open maw and heavy panting filling the room with the dense, wet smell of rotten fish.

The thing roared and whipped its tail around, splintering bookshelves and sending bits of the support beams flying across the room. It took another step forward, twisted, and slammed its tail into an interior wall, right above the heads of Kirsch and Perry, who screamed and threw their hands over their heads as a cloud of bricks and cement descended upon them.

“Perry!” Yelled Laf from across the room, raising their homemade blaster. “Get ready to be ceviche you oversized- '' The monster shrieked, cutting Laf off. It bent it’s enormous slimy knees and faster than I would have thought possible, leaped at them, layers of teeth mashing as it flew through the air.

Suddenly, Danny appeared at Laf’s side, slamming them to the side.“Move, you idiot!” She screamed, just as the monster crashed into the ground where they had just been standing. The bookcases on that side of the room crumpled, burying Danny and Laf as the monster groaned and rose to its feet again. 

“Shit!” I yelled as it growled low, regaining balance. There was a long piece of rebar by my feet that had fallen from a section of destroyed wall and I grabbed it. “Mel-” I started.

“Got it!” She yelled back, sending a volley of arrows from her bow, several of which pierced right through some of the monster’s small, black eyes. It roared and turned towards her and I ran forward, right under its thrashing tail. Praying it didn’t look down, I raised the rebar over my head and lunged, stabbing the long piece of metal deep into the thing’s fleshy leg. 

Hot, black blood splashed across my hands, searing the skin. I screamed in pain just as the monster shrieked and slashed its tail downwards at me. Carmilla was at my side in the same instant. Her arms wrapped my waist and pulled me to the ground, just as the tail whizzed over my head. It kept spinning though, moving towards the other side of the room.

“Mel, move!” I screamed. She cursed and leapt sideways, dodging the monster’s attack by inches. She landed on her side, in a pile of books and bricks.

“My bow!” She yelled, staring furiously at the place where the monster’s tail had landed. “Oh, this oversized tadpole did not just break my favorite longbow! That was premium witchwood, you asshole!” She leapt to her feet and, grabbing a nearby brick, started running toward the monster, fury clear in her eyes.

The monster roared and twisted around. This time Mel wasn’t quite fast enough. The thing’s tail made contact with her hip and sent her flying across the room, right towards the opposing brick wall.

“No!” I yelled, moving towards where I could see Mel was going to hit. Suddenly, Carmilla’s figure at my side became a dark blur. I felt a wind push through my hair as she whizzed past me and almost before my eyes could register the movement, she jumped and pulled Mel out of the air, a split second before the archer’s head would have made contact with the wall. They landed together, Mel’s body looked limp in Carmilla’s arms. Carm looked up at me, the tiniest proud smile playing at her lips. I beamed back at her, momentarily grateful for Carm’s recent revamping. But as our eyes met, her face turned from pride to horror. Her pupils skrank to terrified dots in her eyes and she dropped Mel, jolting towards me screaming, “Laura! Behind you!”

Even as I saw her move and registered her fear, I felt the air around me change. I turned my head, feeling like I was stuck in slow motion, and I knew Carm would never get to me in time. The monster’s tail was whipping towards my head at a baffling speed. I didn’t have time to dodge, I didn’t have time to think, my hands moved instinctively to protect my face but barely had time to move from my side before it was too late. I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes, bracing for the impact. But it never came.

In that instant a blinding flash of light filled the room. It was so bright, it seared my eyes even behind my shut eyelids. Someone yelled, the monster’s terrible roar boomed through the room but choked and cut off with a wet, warbly cry. And then there was silence. 

Another puff of air blew through my hair, and I felt hands touch my face and my shoulders. “Laura, Laura? Are you alright? Did it hurt you? Laura!?” Carmilla’s was strained and frantic, close to hysteria, as she ran her hands over my arms and waist, checking for injuries. I still felt rattled, shaking from the shock of not being dead when a split second ago, it had seemed inescapable. I took a deep, shaky breath, trying in vain to steady myself, and opened my eyes. 

“I’m fine, Carm,” I said, catching one of her hands. “I’m not really sure how, but it never touched me.” I looked around. The library was destroyed. Ripped books, splintered bookshelves, and broken bricks covered the floor. The opening that the monster had entered through had expanded, so nearly the entire wall was reduced to rubble. Now that whole side of the building seemed dangerously unstable, as bits of drywall and rebar fell from the crumbling ceiling. Thick dust still hung in the air, making it difficult to find my friends in wreckage. A few feet to my right, someone was lying on the ground, half buried in bricks. I thought I could make out red hair splashed across the ground, but I wasn’t sure. From across the room, someone coughed and moved out from underneath a pile of books. 

“Ugh, next time you invite me on one of your epic quests, Laura, I’m staying home.” 

“Danny!” I yelled, waving her over. “You’re not dead! Or, well, I guess you are kind of dead, but you’re still undead, instead of being, you know, dead dead. Oh, you know what I mean, just get over here!”

“You’d better be glad I’m not dead dead, Hollis, because if I was, you can bet your short ass I’d come back as a ghost and haunt you for getting me killed.”

“Why are you assuming I’d be the one to get you killed?”

“Because nobody else has me routeinly running into monsters from the pits of hell.”

“Speaking of which,” Carm cut in, turning towards the still-twitching body of the giant fish demons, “monsters from the pits of hell don’t usually just drop dead of their own accord. What happened?”

“Maybe Mel’s arrows hit it in a weird spot?” I asked.

“Or maybe you killed it with your brave cowering, Hollis.” Danny said, poking the thing with her foot.

“Something tells me maybe not,” Carm frowned, bending towards the carcass. Suddenly she froze. She lifted her nose into the air and sniffed. “No way,” she muttered.  
Before I could ask what she meant, something hit me in the shoulder with enough force to send me flying backwards. My back hit the wall behind me hard enough to knock the air from my chest, and something strong and hard pinned me against the bricks, so I couldn’t move. Blinking the stars from my eyes, I tried to focus on the thing that was holding me. My mind conjured up images of evil monsters, grotesque demons, and slobbering ghouls, and I braced myself for yet another battle with a supernatural beast. But when my vision cleared, I saw before me a mess of curly blond hair, large green eyes, and a wide, toothy grin. It was a young girl, barely even seventeen by the look of her, but her hands pressed my shoulders against the brick with enough force to cause sharp spikes of pain to run down my arms.   
“Well, well, long time no see Mircalla!” She called behind her in a high, sing-songy voice. “I hope you don’t mind if I kill your pet here.”

“Actually, I kind of do.” Carm growled, appearing at the blonde girl’s side and seizing her shoulder. With a jerk of her hand, Carm pulled the girl off of me and threw her halfway across the room. She landed on her feet, looking rather unperturbed at being tossed like a sack of potatoes.

She clucked her tongue. “Now, now Mircalla, when did you start getting so physical? If I remember correctly, you always preferred to sit back, and let someone else handle the dirty work. Isn’t that right?” She smiled again and moved forward. 

“Not another step, Helen, I mean it.” Carm said, stepping in front of me.

“It is my right Mircalla. By the old customs, a life for a life. Or don’t you remember?”

“Wait, Carm, you know this girl?” I asked. “What’s going on? Who is she?” It was like Carmilla didn’t even hear me. She just kept her staring at the blonde girl in front of us, the one she’d called Helen. To an outsider, Carmilla might have seemed relaxed in her stance; her arms hung loosely by her sides, her head was cocked towards one shoulder, and she stood in an almost half-slouch. But I’d seen her do this before. She was putting up a front of confidence, a guise of self-assurance, but in reality, she would be ready to attack in an instant.

“It doesn’t matter.” She said, casually, “I won’t let you hurt her.” 

Instantly, I was transported back to a moment five years ago. It had felt the exact same back then: the tension hanging in the air, the unspoken shared past, the predatory eyes staring me down, eyes that were so like Carm’s. And suddenly, I knew who this girl was.

“What in the everloving heck, Carm, how many sisters do you have?!”

… 

**Laura: I had this dream once where I actually knew everything there was to know about Carmilla’s life. Her past, her family, her favorite flavor of ice cream, you know, all the normal things you’d expect someone to know about the girlfriend they’ve been living with for five years. And then I woke up and remembered that my girlfriend is a three hundred-and-fifty-year-old vampire who has entire centuries of her past that I know nothing about. And, apparently, a secret sister that wanted me dead. You might think I would have seen this one coming considering Carmilla’s other secret sister who also wanted me dead, but you really don’t expect things like that to happen twice.**

**Well anyway, this was Helen, Carmilla’s younger sister. She was an inch or two taller than me but only looked about sixteen or seventeen. She spoke formally and with a very slight accent, reminiscent of the American South or the accents in the old British movies that Carm sometimes liked to watch. Unkempt, blonde curls came to right below her chin, framing a pale, pretty face and a pair of deep-set green eyes which flicked about the room curiously. She wore a dark blue jacket and ripped black jeans, but of course, her clothes weren’t the thing I was concentrating on at the time. I was more occupied by the fact that she wanted to kill me…**

“What!?” Danny nearly yelled, her gaze switching off between Carm and Helen as if she was searching for some familial resemblance. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. First it’s a pit full of carnivorous demon babies, then a tadpole monster the size of a house, and now a member of ye old vampire family tree. I mean seriously, could this day get any worse?”

“I’ll remind you that you’re also a member of that family tree Laurence, so it might be wise for you to keep your mouth shut.” Carmilla growled. 

Helen glanced at Danny. “Is that the new one, then? Poor thing, didn’t even get to enjoy the good part of all this.”

“Focus Helen.” Carm snapped, “What are you doing here?”

“I already told you,” She said, taking a step forward. “A life for a life. Your girlfriend’s a murderer and I’m here to set things right!” 

On the last word she leapt forward, tearing through the air so fast she looked like a blur. In the same instant, both Carm and Danny disappeared. I heard shouting and scuffling and something that sounded like a lion’s roar but the movement was too fast for my eyes to track. One moment the three of them were in a thrashing huddle of bodies on one side of the room, and the next something flew through the air and Danny crashed into the opposite wall. Carm and Helen re-materialized a moment later. They stood a few paces away from each other, on guard and breathing heavily.

“Helen stop!” Carm commanded, her eyes narrowing to slits. “Whatever you think Laura did, I can assure you that you’re wrong.”

“Don’t lie to me, Mircalla.” Helen hissed back, her eyes looking even more animalistic than before. “I’ve seen the tapes, she’s a murderer.”

“What are you talking about?!” I shouted, finally managing to find my voice. “You’re here to avenge Vortenburg?”

“No, you idiot. Mattie!” She jumped to the side, barely dodging Carm’s outstretched arms, and pounced at me. She slashed at my neck close enough for me to feel a gust of air against my skin but just before she made contact, she was slammed sideways and pinned to the ground by slightly bloodied Danny. Before she could kick Danny off, Carm materialized next to her and held her shoulders down with enough force to crack the floor.

“Traitors! Both of you! Get off of me! Mattie must be avenged!” Helen screamed as she squirmed and thrashed beneath the two of them.

“You’re crazy!” Danny yelled back, grimacing with the effort to keep Helen’s legs in place.

“Helen, would you just shut up!?” Carm yelled, “You’re too late!” 

Helen stop struggling. Her arms and legs went almost slack underneath Carm and Danny, and for a moment silence hung in the air, broken only by the panting coming from the three of them. All of the movement from before was over and stillness had returned to the room. It had only been a few seconds since Helen had first pounced and a few minutes since the monster had burst through the library wall.

“Tired already?” Carm panted. “I guess stamina was never one of your strong suits.”

“What do you mean I’m too late?” Helen said back. The malice in her voice was gone. It was like she’d snapped out of a frenzy.

“I mean Mattie doesn’t need to be avenged, those who were responsible for her death have already been killed. The old rules are satisfied.”

There was a beat of confused silence in the air. Helen’s gaze moved from Carm to Danny to me. “They’re dead?” She asked, sounding skeptical.

“It’s true,” I jumped in. “Danny was stabbed and I had my heart ripped out by Inanna. We just both, sort of, came back.” Danny nodded in agreement.

“This one has the taint of death in her veins, that’s plain to see,” Helen said, jerking her head to Danny. “But you’re no vampire. I can see your limbs trembling from here. You reek of mortality.”

“I’m sorry, is it just Bash on Humans Day?” I shot back. “Because you’re now the second supernatural being to insult me in a matter of hours. You monsters aren’t all that great, you know. You’re rude, you’re entitled, you never pick up after yourselves, you’re always-”

“Maybe let’s save the name-calling for another time, Hollis?” Danny cut me off.

“Oh sure, whatever you say all mighty vampire,” I muttered. 

I recognized that I was being childish, but I had just been through several life-threatening situations in a matter of hours, I hadn’t slept in a day and a half, and my nerves were just about fried. I looked at Helen. “Look, I don’t really know you but I’ve had it up to here with almost dying today so let’s just skip the formalities. Yes, I killed Mattie, or helped kill her, or whatever you want to call it. It was a mistake I made five years ago out of fear for my life and for my friend’s life. Fear, may I just say, that turned out to be completely justified in the end, but that’s not really the point. The point is that I’ve already made amends for that mistake. I killed an old man, I fought a war with a god, I lived in a cramped library with my ex for three months, I gave my life to make things right! Even Mattie’s forgiven me at this point! All of this happened five years ago by the way, so I don’t know where you were or why you’ve suddenly decided to care about this now, but let’s just say we call the crime avenged, you can stop attacking me, and we can all focus on the much more pressing issue of the ancient Sumerian god who wants to destroy the world for some unknown reason, alright!?” I took a deep breath in and frowned at Helen’s slightly shocked face. I think I saw Carmilla give a sly smile.

Helen just stared at me for a second. Slowly, she nodded. “Okay,” She said. “Evidently I acted rashly. I hereby suspend my vengeance until further notice. Now let me up.” She pushed against Carm and Danny who were still on top of her. After a moment of hesitation, they both eased off and all three of them rose to their feet.  
They stood awkwardly in silence for a bit. All three of them were covered in dust, drywall, and flecks of dry blood. Their clothes were ripped, their hair stood up at odd angles, and scratches speckled every inch of exposed skin. Despite this, none of them looked badly hurt. In fact, they all looked strangely energized, arms and legs still trembling from the thrill of getting to use their full strength against each other. For a second they looked like a couple of kids coming inside after rough-housing all afternoon. Disheveled and beat-up, but happy nonetheless. 

Something on the other side of the room moved and the moment was broken. The room was a mess. The floor was hidden under a mountain of books, drywall, rebar, splintered wood, ceiling tiles, and blood. In the middle of the room, the massive, fleshy carcass of the monster still oozed blood and guts onto the ground, forming a growing pool of greenish sludge around itself. Wires hung from the torn up ceiling and most of the lights were either flickering or blown out entirely. Three of the brick walls housed massive ditches and holes, some of which were so deep that streams of light burst through from outside. The fourth wall didn’t even exist anymore. In its place was a gaping hole nearly ten feet wide that stretched from the ceiling to the floor. Through it, the morning rays of sunrise streamed into the library, suspending each speck of dust and grime in columns of shimmering light. Somewhere in all of the rubble lay Mel, Laf, Kirsch, and Perry. Their bodies were indistinguishable from the surrounding debris.

The movement on the other side of the room happened again, this time accompanied by a groan. I looked over at Danny and Carm and together we began to work our way across the battlefield. They sniffed the air and scoured the wreckage, picking out the bodies of our friends that I hadn’t been able to see as I slowly climbed over to whoever was groaning. It turned out to be a mostly unconscious Kirsch and, with a little digging and a lot of heaving, I managed to drag him through the destroyed wall onto the grass outside. Carmilla joined me a moment later with Perry thrown over one shoulder and Danny brought up the rear carrying Mel and Laf each in one hand. 

“You think they’ll be okay? I asked, bending down and shaking Kirsch’s unresponsive shoulder. 

“Well they’re alive,” Carm said. “So that’s something.”

“Yeah, but will they wake up?” Danny asked. “I mean, couldn’t they have brain damage or internal bleeding or something.”

“Damned if I know,” Carm said. “Keeping humans alive has never really been my speciality.”

“Let me see them,” Helen said, climbing up out the hole. Danny bristled and moved to block Helen’s path but Carm put a hand out to stop her.

“Stand down Baby Fangs, she can help.” Danny shot Carm a look of disbelief, but reluctantly moved aside. Helen walked over to Mel and bent down. Gingerly, she placed the back of her hand onto Mel’s forehead and her other hand against Mel’s neck.

“And how’s that?” Danny asked, still looking suspiciously at Helen.

“Because I’m a nurse, carrot-top.” Helen said without looking up. She moved her hands to the back of Mel’s head and gently felt through her hair before working down to the muscles in her neck. “At least I used to be.”

Danny and I watched as Helen meticulously worked over each of our friends, feeling their joints and muscles, examining their skin for abrasions or miscolorations, measuring their temperatures and pulses and the strength of their breaths. It was mesmerizing to watch her work. She was slow and exact, comfortable yet professional, focused and graceful in her movements. When she finally finished looking over Kirsch, she stood up, stretched and said, “As far as I can tell, they’ll be okay. A couple of fractured ribs, probably some minor concussions, and a rolled ankle or two along with some external scratches and bruising. None of them have any major gashes or impacts marks on their heads so I’d say the possibilities of brain trauma are low, but we won’t know for sure until they wake up.”

“Which will be when?” I asked, squeezing Laf’s hand slightly, half hoping that they’d open their eyes.

“A few hours maybe? Could be less, could be more.”

“How specific.” I muttered.

“We should probably move them to safe space then.” Danny said, “Somewhere more protected than out here in the open.”

“Not a good idea actually.” Helen replied, “On the off chance that one of them has a spinal injury, we want to move them as little as possible to lower the chances of paralysis.”

“You couldn’t have mentioned that before we pulled them out of the rubble?” Danny mumbled. “ I wouldn’t have thrown them around so much if I knew...”  
I looked around as they spoke. “Where’s Carm?” 

“Here!” Came her voice from inside the demolished library. As I watched, she climbed up and out of the hole in the building, holding a thick, leather-bound tomb underneath one arm.

“You went back for the Codex?” I asked as she got closer.

“Yeah, I need to check some of the information on Enki, since it sounds like we have some time before the rest of the idiots wake up.” She sat down on the grass and opened the book to a page in the middle, quickly becoming engrossed in the words.

“Great,” I said, sitting down next to her. “While you’re doing that, how about we hear more from this vampire-nurse-killer-sister you have? Because I have a lot of questions.”

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Hello and thank you for reading! I discovered Carmilla about four years ago at this point and have been working on this fic on and off ever since, so it's awesome to finally be able to start posting it. I've got 8 chapters written already with maybe another 6 or so to go, so this thing's gonna be long, but I'm planning on updating about every two weeks (pandemics are good for writing time). There's some super fun and exciting stuff in store, which I hope will do justice to the spirit and characters of the original series, so stay tuned! I really appreciate feedback and reviews on my work, so let me know what you think!
> 
> Till next time-
> 
> M


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